The total haul for the nation's non-profit and publiccolleges and universities was $31 billion, according to thesurvey by the Council for Aid to Education.

The top 10 fund-raisers together collected more than $5billion, with Harvard raising $650 million, Yale $544 million,the University of Southern California $492 million and New YorkCity's Columbia University $490 million, the report showed.

Overall, charitable contributions to U.S. colleges anduniversities rose 2.3 percent from 2011 to 2012, slightly morethan the rate of inflation. Adjusting for inflation, totalgiving was virtually unchanged, inching up just 0.2 percent.

The total remained below the historical high of $31.6billion reached in 2008 before the financial crisis cut sharplyinto giving.

The survey showed data from more than 1,000 non-profit andpublic institutions.